George Lucas Reveals He Signed Hamill, Ford, Fisher for Star Wars: Episode VII

Image: Lucasfilm

The rumors started almost as soon as it had been announced that Disney had bought Lucasfilm and would release Star Wars Episode VII in 2015. Even before we knew anything about the new movie, the consensus from Star Wars fandom at large seemed to be that Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher obviously needed to star in it.

In the months that followed, each member of the trinity teased some level of involvement in the project; Hamill mentioned to Entertainment Tonight that the actors hadn’t signed contracts but were “in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm.” Earlier this week, Fisher told Palm Beach Illustrated point blank that she would return for the latest installment, an admission quickly followed by a statement from her publicist that of course she was joking. (Ford, meanwhile, has been more circumspect, using anonymous third parties to signal his openness to the idea.)

Now, however, George Lucas has let it slip that he signed all three actors for the next movie, if not more beyond that. In a Bloomberg Businessweek story about Disney’s buyout of Lucasfilm, the Star Wars creator reveals that Lucasfilm “had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation [when the Disney deal came about]. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.'”

Lucas seemed to immediately realize what he had said and attempted to backtrack from the admission, saying “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them,” and adding, “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.” Don’t worry, George. I think that saying that you “had already signed” the actors pretty much says it all.

Still, Disney — and director J.J. Abrams — are the ones at the helm of Star Wars now, and they have yet to confirm the casting. So when will we hear the original word on the return of the classic Star Wars trio? And should we expect more familiar faces from the original trilogy when Episode VII debuts in 2015?